


Inadvertent Matchmaker

by jaeminsrenjun



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 08:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15239400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaeminsrenjun/pseuds/jaeminsrenjun
Summary: Renjun thinks Jeno hates him, Jeno thinks Renjun hates him, and Jaemin thinks both of them are dumb.(Alternatively, Jaemin really hates shitty Korean dramas.)





	Inadvertent Matchmaker

“I don’t know, Jaemin-ah, I think he hates me,” Renjun whispers into Jaemin’s ear, glancing back at Jeno fearfully.

“Who, Jeno?” Jaemin snorts as Renjun nods.

“Well, now why would you think that?” Jaemin chuckles as they walk down the corridor towards the dance studio, dismissing the concerns of the other boy. “Jeno’s the sweetest person you could ever meet.”

“He keeps staring at me like that!” Renjun’s whispers are getting louder and more agitated now. “Ever since I entered the company two weeks ago, he’s been following me around with his eyes, glaring daggers at me.”

Jaemin takes another look back at Jeno, who’s slinking a considerable distance behind them. There’s no mistaking the furrowed brows and deep-set frown on his usually smiling face. He turns back to face Renjun and shrugs, “That’s really weird. Jeno’s usually really nice to new trainees. When I joined, he was the first to befriend me, and helped me a lot. Jisung too.”

Jaemin ponders for a bit before asking, “Did you do something to upset him?”

Indignant, Renjun forgets all about keeping his voice low. “What? I’ve never even talked to him!” His words reverberate down the corridor and he gasps at his outburst, covering his mouth in reflex.

_Shit._

Realising what he’s just done, Renjun steals a glance back at Jeno again, who somehow looks even angrier than he already was, and almost breaks out into a cold sweat. He grabs Jaemin’s hand and breaks into a run, ignoring the undignified yelp of surprise that the latter lets out. Jeno’s stare is boring a hole into his head and he isn’t about to linger around any longer in his line of sight.

A few metres behind them, Jeno clenches his fist, letting out a frustrated sigh.

_Damn you, Na Jaemin._

 

 

“So, tell me, what have you got against the new trainee?” Jaemin casually asks Jeno as they’re heading back home from SM after yet another afternoon of practice. Upon hearing that, Jeno stumbles and almost trips over the bare kerb. Thankfully, Jaemin’s quick reflexes save him from the otherwise likely event of falling flat on his face.

After Jeno regains his balance, Jaemin quirks an eyebrow at him, the question hanging between them doesn’t need to be spoken. Jeno’s acting weirdly, not meeting Jaemin’s eyes – he’s never seen him so flustered before.

“Nothing. There’s nothing between us, nothing at all,” Jeno tells him as he walks away, determined not to meet Jaemin’s piercing gaze.

“Oh really? Then why do you keep staring at him like th–”

“Shut up!” Jeno answers more aggressively than he intends to, and Jaemin takes a step backward, stunned. Jeno’s eyes quickly widen and his expression turns apologetic, stuttering as he tries to form a coherent sentence.

“Well what I mean is – Jaemin-ah, I’m sorry for yelling at you, I just – I don’t, it’s not like that,” he manages, sighing.

“I’m sorry,” he finally says.

Jaemin shakes his head. God knows what Jeno has on his mind this time – even though they’re best friends, Jaemin finds it hard to understand him sometimes.

“Whatever it is, sort it out quickly, so that Renjun stops complaining to me and you stop acting weird,” Jaemin says.

Jeno bites his lip but doesn’t respond. A beat later, he asks, “Does… Do you think Renjun hates me?”

Jaemin lets out a loud bark of laughter, which bewilders Jeno even more as he keeps pace beside Jaemin, wondering why that question was so funny to him.

“Hates you? No, he’s just afraid of you,” Jaemin states matter-of-factly. “If you’re trying to make friends, the fact that you look like you’re gonna murder someone isn’t doing you any favours, you know.”

Jeno lets out a frustrated sigh, putting his hands on his head. “I know, it’s just… I try but I can’t even approach him because he runs away before I even get the chance to.”

He exhales deeply, seemingly resigned to his fate. “I bet he hates me.”

Jeno doesn’t see the exaggerated eye roll that Jaemin does beside him.

 

 

It’s been a month and Jaemin can’t take it any longer. Renjun keeps clinging to him during every practice and Jeno keeps staring daggers at them, only to avoid the topic when Jaemin questions him about it. He just doesn’t understand why two people who barely make eye contact and haven’t even spoken to each other can have such tension between them.

He’s pretty sure his plan is foolproof. Usually after practice, Renjun leaves first, while he and Jeno hang around and leave for home together a while later. Today, however, he plans to tell Renjun to stay in the dance studio because Yixing-hyung is “dropping by to talk to them”. He’ll also tell Jeno that he needs to speak to Taeyong-hyung, and get him to wait for him in the studio.

Hopefully, if all goes to plan, Jeno and Renjun will finally get to talk.

So far, Jaemin decides in satisfaction, it’s all going to plan. It took a bit of convincing both Renjun (“Are you sure? Yixing-hyung is coming? He’s really coming?”) and Jeno (“Can’t I come with you? What do you mean you need to speak to him alone?”) before they both agree, and Jaemin is counting down the seconds to the end of practice when he can finally see his plan come to fruition.

“Thank you everyone, you’ve worked hard! Class is dismissed!” Their dance instructor says. They thank her and after she leaves, Jaemin dashes out of the dance studio, not bothering to say anything to anyone. He camps in a secluded corner of the building, behind a pillar, where he can have a clear view of what’s going on inside the studio through the glass walls but no one else can see him. He watches, delighted, as the trainees stream out of the room one by one until it’s just Jeno and Renjun left inside the studio. Even from here, Jaemin can practically feel the tension between them – thick enough to be sliced with a knife.

“Come on, talk!” Jaemin mutters under his breath repeatedly, as if by sheer will he can make the two of them interact with each other. It’s a gruelling ten minutes as he sees Jeno repeatedly look at Renjun and then away, while Renjun just sits there fiddling with his phone, as though Jeno doesn’t exist at all.

Finally, Jaemin mutters a “yes” under his breath as he sees Jeno get up and cross the distance over to Renjun. He says something, which startles Renjun, the latter evidently not expecting Jeno to finally talk to him. Suddenly, Jaemin wishes more than anything to be able to lip read.

“This is like some shitty Korean drama,” Jaemin grumbles to himself, as he watches Renjun stand up and turn around to face Jeno. Jeno who’s currently – _wait a minute, is he blushing?_ – steadfastly looking at the floor, and not at Renjun’s eyes.

Renjun’s lips are moving now, rapidly – he goes on for quite a while – and Jaemin squints, barely making out Jeno’s reaction. Is he happy, sad, annoyed? Jaemin can’t tell. Curse Lee Jeno and his inexpressive face. When they come back to SM again tomorrow, first thing Jaemin’s doing is to tell their acting coach that Jeno needs a lot of work on his facial expressions.

Renjun’s stopped rambling now. Both of them are just standing there facing each other and Jaemin cringes a little at the unbearable awkwardness.

“I swear, they’re both dumb,” Jaemin sighs heavily, shaking his head. He’s been crouched in this uncomfortable position for way longer than he expected to and his back hurts. Unfortunately, he doesn’t think either of them will be willing to compensate him for his suffering.

Then, Jeno starts talking, but it’s in a different manner this time. He’s looking into Renjun’s eyes with every word he speaks, and his gaze softens, eyes curving into the eye smile Jaemin recognises so well.

_Wonderful, Jeno, you’re doing well, you’re doing gre – What the hell?_

Jaemin sucks in a breath of air so quickly that he almost chokes, but what he sees is unmistakeable – Jeno reaching out to take Renjun’s hand shyly, and Renjun letting him. Jeno’s smile is wide and dazzling and Renjun’s, while less wide, is no less discernible. Jaemin leans forward as far as his back allows him, and stares at the scene unfolding before him. Jeno’s talking once more, while Renjun just smiles at him and nods, without a hint of the fear that plagued him previously when he so much as looked at Jeno. Jaemin would give an arm to find out what they talked about, but it seems like that will forever be a secret between the two of them.

Jaemin focuses his attention back on the two. They’re currently engaged in an apparent heart-to-heart conversation, and somewhere along the way they lace their fingers together. Jaemin looks on in a mixture of horror and amazement.

 _Okay, now this is too much_ , Jaemin thinks, glancing at his watch. It’s already half an hour after the end of their class, which meant he basically spent the last twenty minutes watching them talk. It’s worse than watching a Korean drama, he concludes, because at least then he can hear the characters speak. Now, he’s watching them in complete silence.

Jaemin decides enough is enough and gets up from his hiding place, making sure to stretch out the cricks in his neck and back. He then heads over to the dance studio and bursts in without warning, revelling in satisfaction as Jeno and Renjun jump apart, similar looks of guilt on their faces.

_That’ll teach them._

“Hey! What happened when I was away?” He asks, wide-eyed, pretending to be completely ignorant of what happened, while alternately looking at both of them.

“We figured out you probably lied to us,” Renjun says first.

Jaemin nods. “So you guys aren't completely clueless after all. And?”

“And I figured out why he's been staring at me like he hates me,” Renjun says, eyes crinkling with mirth and darting over to Jeno, who suddenly turns a pretty shade of pink.

“And why is that?” Jaemin wants to know.

He doesn’t know what he expects to hear, but it’s definitely not this. “He's jealous of you.”

“Of me?” Jaemin asks incredulously, eyebrows raised to an almost impossible height. He turns to look at Jeno. “Why?”

Jeno juts his chin out defiantly. “Well, Renjun kept following you around and hanging out with you all the time. Of course I was jealous. I kept wondering what is it you had that I didn’t, why he always avoided me and stuck to you.”

Jaemin’s eyes widen in sudden realisation as he pieces the puzzle together. “You mean... All this time...”

“Yes, you’re right.” Jeno takes a deep breath, and announces, “I have a crush on Renjun.”

This time, it’s Renjun’s turn to blush.

It takes a few seconds for Jaemin to process what’s happening and gather his thoughts. He glances at Renjun, who’s trying and failing to hide his smile, then at Jeno, who’s staring at Renjun unabashedly and grinning like the lovestruck idiot he is.

The fact that he’s inadvertently played matchmaker for his two closest friends hits him like a ton of bricks, and Jaemin’s not sure how to feel about it.

 

 

The next day, Jaemin enters the dance studio only to see Renjun and Jeno chatting enthusiastically, lost in their own world. He doesn’t say a word, but just observes them from a distance. It’s all too obvious how Jeno touches Renjun as much as he can get away with, putting an arm around the latter’s thin frame and strategically placing a hand on his thigh. It’s also equally obvious how Renjun doesn’t feel uncomfortable – he quite enjoys it, in fact, judging from the way he’s leaning into Jeno.

He scrunches his nose, already resigned to his inescapable fate of being the third-wheeler. He can already envision himself trying not to gag as Jeno and Renjun stare lovingly into each other’s eyes, or attempting to keep a straight face while Jeno and Renjun call each other by the cringiest nicknames.

Or even worse, pretending to suddenly be blind when Jeno and Renjun kiss – _ugh._

Even the sheer thought of it makes him wince. Jaemin rubs his temple, sighing.

“Honestly, what kind of shitty Korean drama is this.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> i've always thought of jaemin as someone who's 内心戏很丰富 aka has a lot of inner drama... and i had a lot of fun writing this from his pov :D this was inspired by renjun saying that jeno was cold and scary towards him at first - and i thought what if it was actually because jeno was jealous that renjun and jaemin got along so well? which birthed this fic haha. hope you all enjoyed this, thanks for dropping by! :)
> 
> p.s. if you liked it, please leave a comment, it honestly means a lot to me! <3
> 
> p.p.s. you can find me on twitter @jaeminsrenjun or on curiouscat (jaeminsrenjun), don't be afraid to hit me up, i would love to talk to you guys!! uwu


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